Endless Summer Tiny World

So the last couple days in fez were fine, we went to the cherry festival but things didn’t get started til late in the afternoon so we didn’t end up seeing any of the festival but lots of the town! I went with two Americans, Melinda and chaba, and an Aussie, cam, and we followed a guy through the medina, where we got some cherries and olives, and then up to a waterfall. The guy wanted to take us further but we decided to sit and have lunch. The guy who walked us around the medina and cam, being so trusting, had been told we didn’t have to pay anything, ended up arguing with the boys and getting 100 Moroccan dirhams from us, which is about $10 usd, but still wasn’t happy! The boys argued with him and that’s all he got!
When we went back into town and bought some water we got invited to share some couscous. This was the largest and best couscous I’ve had yet! It’s funny how they have no concern of sanitation as you just walk in knock off left over food on a spoon and use it to try some, but it was amazing and had an entire chicken on it!!
The next day I stayed in casablanca, not my favorite city, got ripped off by the cab driver ( but this Is the Moroccan way for white people) and stayed in what felt like the bates motel!

When I landed in Cairo my first impression was the amazing egytian sunset taking place! The sky was reds, yellows and oranges and the sun was already very low in the sky! The weather was great! Like a nice summer night, customs was easy to get through and a driver to my hostel was very easy to find, things were going great and then BAM! I was in the middle of a huge city and traffic people say is comparable to NYC! I just wandered a little last night without getting lost and decided that today I should go to Alexandria today as it’s not part of my tour.

This morning I made my way to the train station and made my way to alexandria. It’s amazing how outdated the station is with how modern the rest of Cairo is! While waiting on the platform I of course made a friend of a local, ismaih ( sounds a lot like “it’s mine”). Who helpede find my seat and then ended up hanging out with me for the day! “Its mine” is about 40 yrs old I’m guessing with two younger children and he lives in alexandria working for a petrol company, he helped me buy my ticket back to Cairo and decided he didn’t have much else to do so he would accompany me to the sights I decided to see in Alexandria. He bargained (terribly) with the taxi to take me around. We went first to the catacombs which were extremely cool. Over 2000 years old and 300 tombs ! Really awesome. We then went to what they call pompey’s pillar which is a large Greek pillar and sone underground sanctiary’s.we also stopped by the fort and some mosques and then I went to the wontazah palace after dropping “Its mine” off at work. It was a cool city with some cool stuff to see. We also drove by the courthouse where traffic was crazy because one part of the street was closed off due to army tanks being in the road and lots of military being present because it was the trial for someone who killed 5 people during the protests on January!

The funniest part of the day though was my return to Cairo. On the train a young boy sat down to talk with me and practice his English. The funny part though was trying to get a cab back to my hostel from the station. I knew from this morning that it only cost 10 Egyptian pound, which is already twice as much as locals pay, to get home, yet none of the cabs at the station would take me for that much, one cab even tried to get me to pay 50 pounds!! So I started walking towards the road and asking all the cabbies I came upon, as I was asking some guy in a suit said he would help me, his name is sayed. So I let him help me and we ended up getting a cab to the right area for 5 pounds! He then took me to his local coffee shop and we had a tea and then he said he wanted to have a beer and asked if I would go. I wasn’t exactly sure where my hostel was and so far he had paid for everything ao I said sure. We went to a local bar/restaurant and had a couple stellas. The funniest part though was that I almost felt like I was in a dirt if Muslim strip club. There were very few women and at some point a guy decided to take over the microphone and sing all the songs. So this guy stood at the back of the restaurant and sang all the songs by a table (I’m not sure why this table was so special) while anywhere from 1 to 3 girls danced in front of the table, and even one girl ( she was even wearing shorts, unheard of on Muslim religion) almost gave a lapdance- muslim style! So it was strange! But I am beans – they give beans instead of peanuts- and one of them reminded me of cheese curds! Funny I know but I think I had the egytian version of cheese curds, though they weren’t actually even cheese, just tasted a little like them.

After this place I knew it was definitely time to say goodbye as I didn’t want to give the wrong impression or push my luck too much and I headed back to the hostel! But it was a pretty good bargain I think, free cab, tea and drinks and a good laugh, as yet again on this trip I found myself laughing and wondering “how did I get myself into this?” yet one more time!

Tomorrow evening is the first meeting with my group and the luxurious hotel, I’m very excited to meet my crew for the next couple weeks and explore Cairo a little!! Not sure how much contact I’ll have over the next three weeks though, but hopefully most the hotels will have Internet thoug!!

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